At present, child incubators consist of a compartment where the child is kept and an air conditioning compartment.
In general, there is a tray with perforations arranged for the circulation of air that separates the two compartments. Most of the incubator""s air circulates between both compartments with the aid of a fan element that forces its flow; only a small portion of the flow is taken from outside the incubator, that is, fresh air from the atmosphere.
In most incubators, this fresh air passes through a filter that must retain particles greater than 0.5 microns, which may be inorganic, organic or even germs. However, fresh air that is possibly polluted may also enter the incubator when the hood that delimits the child""s compartment or any of its doors or openings for the inclusion of lines, tubes or cables, are opened. In other incubators, the air filter is located in the air conditioning compartment, with the purpose of filtering the circulating air as well as the fresh air. Consequently, whether the incubator is of the type that only filters fresh air or the type that filters the circulating air, the air filter does not guarantee the retention of pathogenic germs any smaller than the pore of this same filter, such as diverse virus, spores and small bacteria. Due to the favorable temperature conditions, humidity and oxygen in the incubator and its circulating air, such pathogenic germs can proliferate, especially if the child remains for prolonged periods in the incubator and/or if there is not adequate and continuous cleaning and disinfection of the same incubator or else if the corresponding air filter is not changed often enough. Furthermore, a child that develops an infectious process and which abandons one incubator may infect another that was previously free from infections, if the child is introduced to such incubator and if the incubator is not rigorously disinfected. When this happens it is known as cross infection. It is also known that hospital infections, i.e. those acquired during one""s stay in a clinic or hospital, are particularly difficult to combat due to the resistance acquired by the microorganisms against the disinfection agents used and the antibiotics administered to the patients. Furthermore, both full-term and premature new born babies, particularly the latter, are more vulnerable to infections than those of a greater age.
It is known that the lethal action of irradiation on microorganisms is due to the fact that such energy, on penetrating the material, acts on the SEEREPM (Space-Energetics Representation of Electronic Probablistic Manifestations) electronic orbitals that constitute atoms. When this alteration occurs in the molecular environment of microorganisms, their metabolic characteristics are altered. If the irradiation substantially alters the nucleonic acids (basically the RNA and DNA) of the microorganism, its essential metabolism is severely disabled and it dies.
With the aim of providing circulating air which is practically sterile and free of pathogenic microorganisms for the child occupying the incubator, the system covered by the invention, incorporates a non-ionizing source of radiation, which we hereinafter call irradiation, and which is effective in the annihilation of such pathogenic agents with sufficient doses. The source of irradiation is located close to or adjacent to the air conditioning compartment, specifically in a part hereinafter called the irradiation chamber. The circulating air is forced to pass through a region irradiated by the mentioned source, this region hereinafter being called the xe2x80x9csterilization zonexe2x80x9d. The irradiation chamber can be physically separated from the sterilization zone by a means that allows the passage of the irradiation from its source to the sterilization zone. This sterilization zone does not have any physically separation from the air circulating in the air conditioning compartment. Therefore, the irradiation energy from the sterilization system acts on the circulating air and is independent from the air filter which may or may not exist in the incubator.